Chicago, IL, United States
About this listing
Every Fender Contempo we restore for sale goes through the same meticulous process we're known for, with dozens of hours devoted to bringing each instrument to exceptional playing condition. We prioritize period-correct vintage components whenever possible, and turn to the best available reproduction parts when originals are no longer viable — always working to preserve the instrument's original character and tone. The result is an organ that plays and sounds better than it likely has in decades.
Announced in 1967 and produced for only a few years before it was discontinued in 1971, the Contempo was Fender's attempt to compete with Vox and Farfisa in the booming combo organ market — a natural extension for a company that was already deep into developing the Rhodes piano at the time, though the Contempo ultimately struggled to compete with the popularity of the Hammond and the Rhodes. It's a single-manual, 61-key organ with reverse-colored keys on the bottom octave (harpsichord-style) that can function either as a dedicated bass section or an extra octave of the main voices, along with bass and treble voices, a Normal/Solo switch, onboard tremolo in addition to the vibrato most combo organs offer (the two share an oscillator, so their rate stays synced whether you select "Slow" or "Fast"), a "Solo Timbre" switch for extra brightness, and a 5-1/3' stop tab — an unusual, genuinely useful jazz-organ footage rarely found on combo organs of this era. It also has an unusual triple-axis volume pedal that controls volume on the up-down motion and tone on the side-to-side motion. Under the hood it runs on silicon transistors with diode clippers in the circuit for a fatter tone, landing somewhere between the sound of a Vox and a Gibson combo organ. The Fender connection runs deeper than just the badge, too — the keybed was built by the Pratt-Read company, the same maker supplying early Fender Rhodes keybeds at the time, and the electronics use the same "Blue Astron" capacitors found in Fender tube amps of the era. It originally shipped with chrome legs and a swell/expression pedal.
Features:
Cleaned & Lubricated Key Contacts and Switches
Freed & Restored Wax-Potted Tuning Coils
New Electrolytic Capacitors
Fully Restored Power Supply
CEPCo's Expert Tuning & Voicing Setup
Cleaned All Tabs, Switches & Connectors
All Voltages Checked & Calibrated for Optimum Performance
New Cables
Includes the original chrome pedal, but does not include the original legs.
**International Customers** Please contact us for an exact shipping quote. Displayed shipping costs may not be accurate.
Price$2,400
+ $350 Shipping to
